The Crow is the one movie I thought should never have become a franchise. To me, when someone dies as a direct result of the negligence on set, just let it be a one off in their memory. But they made three more and a TV series so they didn’t listen to me.
When they started developing a remake 10 years ago I was finally ready to accept a new Crow. It had been 20 years and if someone had another take on James O’Barr’s comic, I was interested. Those movies didn’t get made either which, more than Hollywood development hell, really seemed like a sign to just let this IP go.
I didn’t even get a screening of The Crow remake when it opened in August so I waited patiently for the 4K UHD. Sadly, this incarnation only reinforces my belief that this is not a franchise, despite all the attempts to embellish the mythology. In fact, those new additions take The Crow so far away from O’Barr it loses what makes the mythology connect.
In attempting to develop the love between Eric (Bill Skarsgard) and Shelly (FKA Twigs), the movie spends a half hour with them but amounts to no more than romance montages. Putting aside the fact that addicts dating addicts is problematic, that first act never makes the audience fall in love with them because it’s just a series of traumas begging you to feel sorry for them.
Danny Huston plays a supernatural villain. The late Brandon Lee actually asked to remove other supernatural elements from his version so that The Crow would be the only one. He was right and this makes it ghost vs. vampire. Lee had begun shooting scenes with the Skull Cowboy before his death so apparently he compromised on that but a spirit guide is more inherent than a world of supernatural beings.
This one also adds the twist that Eric can bring Shelly back if he kills everyone who killed her. That’s absurd and defeats the purpose of The Crow being a way to cope with grief.
Alex Proyas’s Crow created a new look for inner city gothic. That was a comic book city that did not exist in real life. Rupert Sanders’ Crow takes place in a generic looking modern city, because it’s Prague. Kronos (Sami Bouajila) even acknowledges “you’d think they’d come up with something better” regarding the generic purgatory. Acknowledging mediocrity doesn’t justify it.
Like the 1994 adaptation, this Crow takes place largely at night, but it’s digital so it’s not as evocative as the ‘90s and rarely full darkness. Even the watery death dream is too lit. The bridge at night should be a void. A few interiors get there and driving up to Roag (Huston)’s mansion at night, plus some black water, but it’s not the overall look.
Sound puts the whispers of the Crow legend in the viewer’s ears as well as Eric’s, and club music fills the room only pointing out that this soundtrack is not as memorable as the 1994 one.
At least they went all in with an hour-long behind-the-scenes doc. They mention buying the rights from Relativity after that studio went under, and they do address the 1994 film but mainly talk about grief. Twigs is open about being new to movies and how Skarsgard helped her technically, physically moving her into the light in one scene. There’s a lot on the costumes too.
Sanders did insist on only rubber or airsoft guns. That’s significant. Not only should a Crow movie be sensitive to firearm safety, but all movies should follow suit.
Four deleted scenes include two of Roag’s additional cruelty and two more Eric and Shelly romance scenes.